By Prof SB Prasad
Due to the unfortunate pandemic, COVID19, a lockdown has been imposed nationwide from March 25, 2020, and extended to May 3, 2020. In haste, without discussing the modalities and possible problems, teachers in the Universities were asked to start online classes by MHRD/UGC during this lockdown. At this juncture, academic institutions are trying to find solutions for key processes of finishing coursework as the semester was disrupted midway and also for conduct of examinations. I discussed on the online teaching with some faculty and students in some other Universities and also in NEHU. During this discussion various points emerged:
- People often start comparing Indian teaching with foreign institutions where online teaching is common. It should be remembered that there, the teachers as well as students have proper training and have been given infrastructural facilities, laptops and free internet to use it uninterrupted. Whereas here, we did not even have a departmental meeting online to ascertain what problems one might face.
- University has an economically, socially and geographically diverse group of students. After lockdown, some students have gone back home to remote areas, villages where the internet service is not good enough and they are not able to connect to the internet, and also many can’t afford a huge data pack. Further, prolonged interruption in internet supply due to severe damages in the server system and transmission towers in the locations of teachers and students is creating a problem in online teaching.
- All the students in the class are not able to join and not all teachers are able to conduct online classes because of their locations which are on the campus, city, or stranded out of the city. The Head of the department has a crucial role in the university, as he/she is the link between academics and administration in the University. Presently, most of the Heads of departments have become the forwarding officer of the emails from University officers to faculty and vice-versa. There is no discussion, no online meeting, etc. If some Heads of the departments express their problem in conducting online teaching, they are being threatened with disciplinary action by the top officer. Teachers feel that this approach is detrimental to academic activities.
- It is not clear as to what will be the policy of the University on the required percentage of students’ attendance to appear in the end semester examinations?
- The administration is not giving clear instructions on whether a faculty can visit the department to collect some books, reading materials, etc during this lockdown/curfew?
- The teachers are asked to follow the time table, fill the format, and submit it daily by afternoon for further compilation. How is it feasible to follow this time limit? Further, the format reflects only the number and sex of students enrolled and participating. It is not of academic interest.
- It is felt that the administration should have first discussed this matter in a comprehensive manner with their faculty in the Statutory bodies like Academic Council, instead of just giving orders/notifications for the faculty to start online classes. The teachers are simply not ready for this kind of shift. The shift was also made in a hurry as the lockdown was put into place but we could at least have talked about it and come up with a schedule and a plan about what we can and should do if the videos do not work or files do not go through and how to do the internal assessment?
- It is difficult to teach without class interaction, especially for the postgraduate students; a lot depends on the discussions, as a group. Class interaction holds a lot of significance in understanding a topic.
- Compounding this problem, some academic institutions agreed with/without discussion with stakeholders to open the COVID19 quarantine centers in the campus which are adding further psychological stress among the campus residents/teachers.
- 10. In science streams, fifty percent of theexamination is based on practical classes. It is not possible to meet this requirement while taking online classes.
- Universities should start discussing and preparing the academic calendar of the next year keeping in mind the time required to adjust the course requirements of the current batches of students. The possibility of shifting to an annual mode of teaching, especially at the UG level, should be seriously considered. It will enable the system to respond better to such crises, in case the lockdown is further prolonged.
The present imposition of online classes is creating a lot of obstacles for teachers as well as students. It is hoped that various academicians will respond to these issues which are being expressed nationwide on sudden shifting to the online mode of teaching.
(The writer teaches in the Department of Zoology, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong)